House prices take a tumble as stamp duty holiday ends

More than 200,000 first-time buyers benefited from the stamp duty holiday over the past two yearsJohn Stillwell/PA

British house prices suffered the steepest annual drop in almost three years during June and the market shows no sign of a rebound in the coming months.

Nationwide said that prices fell 1.5 per cent compared with the same month last year to an average £165,738 in the sharpest fall since August 2009. Month on month, they fell 0.6 per cent.

Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, said: “The slightly weaker trend we’ve observed since March is unsurprising, given the difficult economic backdrop, with the UK economy dipping back into recession ... and few signs of a near-term rebound.”

Mr Gardner said that part of the weakness in house prices was down to the stamp duty holiday for first-time buyers coming to an end in March.…